The Tragic Tale of the Nine Days Queen

Hello, lovelies! I hope we are all well and doing our best as always. Huzzah, huzzah, huzzah, we finally, we now have the History Community on Vocal, and I cannot be any happier! History is a subject I have always enjoyed. What interests me most about history is how some figures, events and eras become falsely romanticised and condensed into fiction tales that hide the real truth, or forget it entirely.

The tragic tale of the Lady Jane Grey, known by history as the Nine Days Queen, is one moment in history that often gets quickly glossed over. The Tudors, though short-lived, had an eventual 118 years on the throne, when you are named queen for only nine days. It is easy to see how quickly your story becomes subsided. Especially when your successor is Mary I - Bloody Mary.

In school, we are pretty much taught that the young king Edward VI died at aged 15/16 and named Lady Jane Grey as his successor. Of course, many expected Mary to become Queen, not Jane, and so Mary started gathering her supporters. Nines day later, she becomes Mary I, and Lady Jane Grey was executed.

And that's it.

That's all Jane gets in our history books and since I was eight years old, something about that didn't sit right with me. So here I am eighteen years later, writing about Lady Jane Grey.

So the year is 1553 mid June. Edward VI is aware of his illness and devises a Letters Patent for the Limitation of the Crown. In this document, the young king names Lady Jane Grey, his successor. Historians believe this is for three main reasons:

1) When Edward first named Lady Jane as his heir, the judges of the Kings Bench refused as they believed overturning the succession was an act of treason, this is what Edward had to say:

"For indeed my sister Mary was the daughter of the king [...] by Katherine the Spaniard, who before she was married to my worthy father had been espoused to Arthur, my father’s elder brother, and was therefore for this reason alone divorced by my father.

But it was the fate of Elizabeth, my other sister, to have Anne Boleyn for a mother; this woman was indeed not only cast off by my father because she was more inclined to couple with a number of courtiers rather than reverencing her husband, so mighty a king, but also paid the penalty with her head – a greater proof of her guilt.

Thus in our judgement they will be undeservedly considered as being numbered among the heirs of the king our beloved father."

Edward VI kept his father's wishes and continued the rhetoric that both Mary and Elizabeth were illegitimate. He also passed over the Stuart Line just like his father, as they also wrote it in Henry VIII's will.

"All intents and purposes are and be clearly disabled to aske, claime, or challenge the said imperiall crowne, or any other of our honores, castelles, manores, lordeshipes, lands, tenements, and hereditaments."

2) Lady Jane Grey is of royal blood. She is the granddaughter of Henry VII and Edwards first cousin once removed. Edward declared in his Patent, that Lady Jane would be Queen and then her male heirs would take the throne, if she did not have any male heirs her sisters Katherine or Mary (if they too have male heirs) will take the throne, blah, blah, blah - you get the point.

3) Jane was a Protestant. Mary was Catholic. Henry VIII broke from Rome, divorced Catherine of Aragon, married Anne Boleyn, created the Church of England naming himself as the Head of the Church and thus, the Protestant reformation of 1533 had began. So yea, you can see why Edward chose Jane over Mary; it was a conflict of faith.

Less than a month later, Edward VI died on the 6th July 1553 of Tuberculosis. Four days after this they made the death of the King public and Jane woke up to find herself Queen. They took her to the Tower (royal apartments, of course) and accepted the title as Queen Jane. For those like Lord Dudley (Jane's father-in-law), England's succession, faith and future seemed secured.

However, Dudley and his supporters dramatically underestimated the overwhelming support that Mary actually had. She not only had noble support, she also had the sympathies of everyday people. Ordinary people deeply loved Catherine of Aragon, her mother. She was Queen Regent when Henry was fighting wars with France. Katherine had earned the respect and love of the people, and for Mary, it was the same.

Ambitious men who only wanted power for themselves surrounded poor Jane. When she hears the news the Mary is coming for the crown, and she has more support than Jane could ever hope for. The poor sixteen-year-old was given a deadly inheritance, and she had no choice but to take it. I can't imagine what was going through her mind.

Nine days later, yep you guess it Mary declares herself Queen Jane was arrested, and that's the end of the story...

No, obviously not.

Mary, though Bloody her name may be, she actually tried to prevent her cousin's death on more than one occasion. In fact, many believed she would just let Jane live, because she didn't pose a threat to Mary, and Mary recognised Jane was a pawn in a much bigger game of chess, and that wasn't her fault.

So what happened?

Jane's father, Henry Grey Duke of Suffolk. If you remember, I mentioned how Mary was Catholic and Jane Protestant and Edward was worried about the conflict between the two and what that might do to England?

Yea... Mary had definitively created some enemies in a very short space of time. I mean, this is Henry VIII's daughter they were dealing with, so I don't know why they were so shocked at her ruthlessness. And just like Jane, Mary's story is reduced to her coldness, not her kindness.

Jane's father and a few other overly ambitious men, once again, thought they could just start a rebellion, which of course failed terribly, because no-one supported their course, Henry Grey was executed on the spot, and sealed Jane's fate.

Early 1554, and Jane and her husband are on trail for treason, both of which plead guilty too. Jane confessed she did indeed accepted the title of Queen and had thus signed her name Queen Jane. This is in the eyes of the law, and the line of succession according to Mary and her supporters, an Act of Treason, and because Jane said to herself that she was guilty. They left Mary with no choice.

On, 12th February, Lady Jane Grey walked up to the executioner's block -

"Good people, I am come hither to die, and by a law I am condemned to the same; the fact indeed against the Queen’s Highness was unlawful and the consenting thereunto by me…

I do wash my hands thereof in innocency before the face of God and the face of you good Christian people this day."

She read Plasm 51 in her prayer book. She gave her gloves and handkerchief to one of her ladies-in-waiting, and handed the prayer book to the Lieutenant of the Tower. She removed her gown, headdress and collar to and also gave them to her ladies.

Jane then asked the executioner to ‘despatch her quickly’ as she tied the blindfold around her eyes. She groped blindly for the block when panic overcame her. Her very last words were:

‘What shall I do? Where is it?’

Someone stepped in to help, and Jane laid her head on the block. As she spoke her last words,

"Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit,"

Then the axe fell. Jane was buried in the same Chapel as Anne Boleyn, Katherine Howard, and quickly forgotten. Jane is a victim of her own family. A child surrounded by men who wanted nothing that wealth, status and power. Jane paid the highest price, and she deserves to be remembered. It's the least we could do.

After that, I think I'm going to watch an episode of Bluey just to feel a bit better.

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Stay safe, stay hopeful and stay blessed! :)

References:

https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/history-and-stories/lady-jane-grey/#gs.zlgs88

https://englishhistory.net/tudor/monarchs/queen-mary-1/

https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/paul-delaroche-the-execution-of-lady-jane-grey

https://www.palaces-of-europe.com/lady-jane-grey.html

https://www.tudorsociety.com/21-june-1553-edward-vi-chooses-lady-jane-grey-heir/?utm_content=cmp-true

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-Grey-Duke-of-Suffolk